“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”
― Kahlil Gibran

Here is where we leave our praise for the episode. Looking forward to this one.

 

Usually I am weak to the lure of spoilers. I cave and then I pay the price. In season 9B I have developed more willpower BUT I did "accidentally" read a blip from the recent posts tab prior to the episodes that alerted me kids would die.. I am so glad that is all I saw because this episode was chock full of WTF moments. Moments that may have held less impact if I had known what to expect.

As most were, I kept thinking of Children of the Corn. Because of that damn movie, all those years ago, I swore that if I ever had sons the names Isaac and Malachai would never be available as choices! Clowns are creepy. Puppets are creepy. A group of brainwashed psycho children is an EXTRA level of creepy. With all the theories of the scars I do not recall a single one proposing where Judith is kidnapped by baby psychokiddies and that a pregnant Michonne would have to massacre said psychokiddies in order to save Judith and the other Alexandria kids.

Many people consider The Grove to be a dark episode. And it was.....to a point. But this?!? This episode! This was like black hole dark. This episode made The Grove look more like a dusky episode. All the speculation, the waiting, the theorizing was worth it. The episode gave us a mind blowing pay off

 

Things I loved:

• When Michonne tells Daryl she is not doing good, being alone. Oh my heart. I know it broke into a million pieces in that moment. She has had no closure. Is he dead? Did he somehow survive? If so, why didn't he come back to us? Is he a walker? Did he blow up in the explosion? I cannot even imagine the levels of despair that kind of living in the unknown must feel like.
• Daryl and Judith having their moment. Not since he deemed her Lil Asskicker back in season 3 have we had a Daryl and Judith moment. This was a long time coming. Hopefully we will see more interaction between the two. I liked the calm yet no nonsense vibe of the manner in which they communicated. While Daryl may not tell Judith everything, may not answer her questions in such a black and white manner as Negan seems to , there is still a level of respect between the two. Daryl realizes that Judith is no ordinary child. That she is capable of handling more than say Gracie might be.
• Negan telling Michonne some hard truths. I like and appreciate the slow build with Negan and his quasi redemption. We had too much Negan in seasons 7 and 8. I think that AK has a made a clever choice in giving us just moments of time jump Negan with each of those moments building upon the previous. I like this take on Negan's growth rather than the writers trying to force feed it to us. AK is allowing us to contemplate how we feel about new Negan. Do we believe it? Is it a Negan game? Is it possible for someone to find that part of themselves that was lost prior to the end? Can anyone come back from being a monster? His "redemption" is a slow build and we are being eased into it. What redemption will look like on Negan remains to be seen.
• The moments between Daryl and Michonne. When they hug one another as he is leaving Alexandria with Connie, Dog, Lydia and Henry. And then again the touch he gives her when they are sitting on the swings. It is rare we see such an outward expression of love from Daryl. I can only think of past moments being between Daryl and Rick or Daryl and Carol. Daryl and Michonne share a love for Rick and they both feel his absence. I like that AK is giving them moments to lean on one another in regard to the void that Rick's absence has left with each of them.

To be continued......

 

for what it's worth, my take on the branding (from another thread):
When they had Michonne cornered in the hall (after being branded) Jocelyn told psychokiddie Linus that he knew what to do. Psychokiddie Linus said "we marked our kill, we kill our mark". Since the ones branding Daryl and Michonne were younger than others I am thinking the branding was a sort of rite of passage. A sign that they had graduated from psycho in training status to now Jr. Psycho. Jocelyn also states that others (from Alexandria) might be on their way and this could be why the rest of her "training program" is halted and they try to flee. Perhaps in other instances those branded were freed sans weapons and were hunted, killed and gutted (much like the drawings we saw). I do not think they were cannibals but rather those branded were used in her training/brainwashing the children

 

I liked The Grove episode just fine, but I do think that I was one of the few people who did not see it as shocking as it was made out to be.

I agree that the children of the corn contingent received their comeuppance (that is a lot C's in one sentence!). I think it was a darker episode due to the combination of the Alexandrian kids being lured away by the pied piper, the capture and torture of Michonne and Daryl along with the fact that Michonne had no choice but to kill all those children in such a horrific manner. Stabbing, slicing and dicing is a far more horrendous act than shooting someone.

 

Interesting factoid: The Grove was also the 14th episode of its season (4)

 

Judith left to, in her minds eye, help Daryl. She probably wanted to convince him to return to Alexandria. And she probably found herself in a Walker conundrum - not intentionally seeking walkers.